Education in the Colonies
The School System in America
1607-Republic
Colonial Schools

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Modeled on British
system
Stressed religious
education

Reading was vital and
literacy important

WHY?
New England: Mass Bay, New
Hampshire, Connecticut

Church, State, schools
interrelated


Establish system of town
schools
Learning focused on
curbing idleness and
growing up
The Middle Colonies: NY, NJ, Penn,
Del

Wider variety of
students

Swedes, Germans, Irish,
English, Dutch, Scot, etc.

Mostly parochial schools


Appealed to the various
Protestant and Catholic
Faiths of area
Similar curriculum to
New England School
The Southern Colonies: Virginia,
Maryland, Georgia, NC, SC

Mostly limited to large landowners

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Promote religion
‘Civil Society’


Few schools for lower class


Gentleman and ladies of breeding
‘know your place’
Education for slaves forbidden
Types of Schools

3 major types



Dame Schools
Reading and Writing Schools
Latin Grammar Schools
Dame Schools



Run by widows or housewives
Supported by modest fees
Provided basic schooling for both genders


Reading, writing, arithmetic at elementary level
Sewing, homemaking lessons included for girls
Dame Schools

Women were expected to stick to
their knitting and not meddle
in “such things as are
proper for men, whose
minds are stronger.”
Reading and Writing Schools


Boys Only
Lessons based on Bible, New England Primer

New England Primer

Used woodcuts, rhymed couplets to teach letters of the
alphabet

Couplets and images derived from Bible
Latin Grammar School

Upper level education



Students enrolled about 7 or 8
Boys only
Intend as preparation for Harvard University

Ultimate goal would be position in church and
government
Higher Education . . .
Harvard - 1638
 William and Mary - 1693
 Yale - 1701
 Princeton - 1746 (Presbyterian)
 Columbia - 1754 (Episcopal)

Life in a Colonial School

Students sometimes began school as young as
2 and half!


Used hornbooks to learn alphabet



All ages shared a classroom
Textbooks were whatever books students brought
to school
Most schools were poorly located and quite
cramped
Discipline was harsh and quite violent
Higher Education. . .
Brown - 1764 (Baptist)
 Rutgers - 1766 (Dutch Reformed)
 Dartmouth - 1769
(Congregationalists)

What is it?
What is it?


A whipping post. These were
outside the school house and
students were tied to it to
receive whippings.
Discipline was severe!


The rod, the fist, the hand
Boxing of the ears.
New Schooling Ideas: PreRevolutionary Era to Early Republic



Compulsory Education
Broader Learning
Free and public schools
Compulsory Education

Massachusetts Act of 1642

Required compulsory education


Parents with illiterate children could lose custody!
Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647

Required establishment of town supported schools



Depended on size of town
Salary of teacher paid by town
Why the name?
Broader Education

Benjamin Franklin


Created ‘Philadelphia Academy’ (1749-1751)
Intended to replace Latin Grammar School





Lessons in English instead of Latin
Broader, practical knowledge
Secular and open to public (for small tuition)
Less emphasis on religion
Peaked about 1855 (6,185 total in US)
Franklin’s Academy
Two Divisions
 English School
 Classical School
 Latin master had a title and was paid
twice as much, English master had no
title and twice as many students

Philadelphia Academy Curriculum


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Grammar
Composition
Literature
Classical and Modern
Languages
Science
Writing and Drawing



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
Rhetoric and Oratory
Geography
History
Agriculture and
Gardening
Arithmetic and
Accounting
Mechanics